Let's Go Green!: Vacation '09

Here's a little more about my 2009 family vacation. =)

I'm too lazy to elaborate so I shall just post some pictures.

As mentioned, Penang had the most attraction. On the second day that we were there, we took a one day guide to visit the famous spots in Penang. Among it was the Kek Lok Si temple.

I never have much fascinations for temples (except for some of those really old ones in China because they normally come with an interesting story) but I do have much fascinations for turtles! They had turtles!! =D

So I got myself a handful of sayur and tried to feed the turtles.

I really thought there was some way I could go down that pagoda and feed the sayur to the turtles directly. Imagine my disappointment when mum told me that I only had to throw the sayur down! =(

There were stalls inside the temple selling printed Penang tees and other stuff. There was also the super tall bronze Guan Yin statue up a mountain. And a random garden some where in the middle. I met my evolution ancestor. =P

After that, we went off to visit Penang Hill.

I did not know Penang Hill is Bukit Bendera. -____-"

And it took me pretty long to figure out that Star Hill is in fact, Bukit Bintang. -____-"

Anyway, the train up the hill can use some improving. It was moving turtle speed and it was jam-packed. Very hot in there too. And again, no queuing. Just going up and down the hill alone takes more than one hour.

But to make up for it, the air was reasonably cool. The view wasn't so bad. We even saw monkeys! =D We didn't walk very far because the sun was still rather hot up there. None of us had any wish to go tan.

Yes, I even sought shed under a bush. Haha.

The visit to the Peranakan House was extremely satisfying though. It's Chen Xi's house in Little Nyonya!

Doesn't that look familiar? Hehehe.

We had an awesome guide from the place who told us of many things. We visited the various rooms and at one time, we even came across their chamberpot.

How they could sit on such a fragile looking thing, I have no idea. It looks like vase la, dude!

We also saw their beaded shoes, called "Manik Eh" (read "eh" in hokkien, lol!) The guy said that the beads were so minute that if the ladies back then had to sew without a pair of magnifying glasses, they'd go blind in a few days.

He also said that crafts work was how the people last time spend their time. Each work can take up to half a year. Or more than 2 years if the work's really intricate and huge. Very impressive looking crafts though.

And this is probably the camera the Little Nyonya crew used for the Japanese guy - Ju Xiang's husband and Yue Niang's father.

We also visited the kitchen. In Little Nyonya, this was where all the ladies gathered to compete to become Chen Xi's wife. A tad disappointing looking because in tv, they made it look so huge! Haha. Oh wells.

I'm pretty sure the fridge wasn't there in the show. Lol!

Besides visiting this movie site, we also visited the place where Anna and the King was shot. This is the Khoo Kongsi's house.

It's rather like a muzeum. The family history was really impressive. Every graduate had their name engraved on a gold plate (or something golden-ish) and the plate's hung in one of the rooms. Their family tree can be traced over 20 generations back! (or is it more?)

We also had a look at the jetty. Nothing much to see there except houses and boats and the sea.

On another different day, we also visited the Gurney Drive.

The beach is polluted.

It's like Kuching's waterfront minus all the pretty elaborate lights.

There're plenty of couples pak toh-ing here too. As we sat waiting for the bus after dinner that night, 9 out of 10 people who walked past us were holding hands.

We visited the Spice Garden on one of those days too. I forgot what plant this is, but I probably had a story in mind when I took this photo. Can't remember it now.

I learnt here that a lot of ornamental flowers are poisonous.

Mum: I keep this at home! Is it poisonous?

Man: Yes.

Mum: What about this? People plant this in their back yards some times.

Man: Definitely poisonous.

Don't simply plant flowers in your back yards, that's the lesson learnt. Haha.

The man also showed us one of Harry Potter-ish broom made of some plant's parts. I wanted a picture so I simply grabbed a broom and sat on it. Pretty happily, I might add.

Until the man said that I'd got the wrong model.

-_____-"